FREE ESSAY ON COUNTRY IS MORALLY SUPERIOR TO CITY

COUNTRY IS MORALLY SUPERIOR TO CITY

Traditionally, the country is seen as being morally superior to the city. The city and the
country are used, therefore, to symbolise vice and virtue respectively: the youth of
Rome...[are] always amenable to any perverse suggestion who could endure this monstrous
city...and swallow his wrath? When shall I see that place in the country, when shall I be
free to browse among the writers of old...? 
The moral decrepitude of the city is seen as a symptom of modern degeneration: an age
when each pimp of a husband takes gifts from his own wife's lover 
The inconvenience of city life: 
Juvenal documents the physical dangers of life in Rome - The cruel city's myriad perils
including the badly made accommodation, the danger of mugging and robbery and the
constant house fires, although his contrast of this with the country's squalor and
isolation suggests that he doesn't feel the country to be the haven that Horace sees it
as. 
Horace's satires concentrate more on the lack of personal freedom and space in the
city-hundreds of items of other people's business buzz in my head and jump round my legs
This lack of freedom is personified by the 'Pest' of Horace's Satire 1:9. 
City life is characterised as unhealthy, with the leaden sirocco, which in the tainted
Autumn enriches Our Lady of Funerals and heartburn and ulcers, brought on by overeating 
The pace of life: 
A major part of the inconvenience of city life seems to be the pace, which Horace finds
almost unendurable: I have to barge through the crowd, bruising the slow-movers. and
describes allegorically in his tale of the town and country mice - They dashed in fright
down the long hall, their fear turning to utter panic when they heard the sound of
mastiffs baying 
A large part of this problem in Juvenal's view is the problem of traffic and, more
specifically, of being a pedestrian in Rome: those behind us tread on our heels. Sharp
elbows buffet my ribs, poles poke into me; one lout swings a crossbeam down on my skull 
In contrast, the country is described by Horace in natural, calm terms: A piece of
land...with a garden and, near the house, a spring that never fails, and a bit of wood to
round it off. Juvenal also gives a rather idyllic description of country life, with its
informality and freedom from fashion - Even the magistrates need no better badge of
status than a plain white tunic. 
Cultural life in Rome: 
Although the city might be expected to be far more culturally active than the country,
the Roman Satirists 
Bibliography
Traditionally, the country is seen as being morally superior to the city. The city and
the country are used, therefore, to symbolise vice and virtue respectively: the youth of
Rome...[are] always amenable to any perverse suggestion who could endure this monstrous
city...and swallow his wrath? When shall I see that place in the country, when shall I be
free to browse among the writers of old...? 
The moral decrepitude of the city is seen as a symptom of modern degeneration: an age
when each pimp of a husband takes gifts from his own wife's lover 
The inconvenience of city life: 
Juvenal documents the physical dangers of life in Rome - The cruel city's myriad perils
including the badly made accommodation, the danger of mugging and robbery and the
constant house fires, although his contrast of this with the country's squalor and
isolation suggests that he doesn't feel the country to be the haven that Horace sees it
as. 
Horace's satires concentrate more on the lack of personal freedom and space in the
city-hundreds of items of other people's business buzz in my head and jump round my legs
This lack of freedom is personified by the 'Pest' of Horace's Satire 1:9. 
City life is characterised as unhealthy, with the leaden sirocco, which in the tainted
Autumn enriches Our Lady of Funerals and heartburn and ulcers, brought on by overeating 
The pace of life: 
A major part of the inconvenience of city life seems to be the pace, which Horace finds
almost unendurable: I have to barge through the crowd, bruising the slow-movers. and
describes allegorically in his tale of the town and country mice - They dashed in fright
down the long hall, their fear turning to utter panic when they heard the sound of
mastiffs baying 
A large part of this problem in Juvenal's view is the problem of traffic and, more
specifically, of being a pedestrian in Rome: those behind us tread on our heels. Sharp
elbows buffet my ribs, poles poke into me; one lout swings a crossbeam down on my skull 
In contrast, the country is described by Horace in natural, calm terms: A piece of
land...with a garden and, near the house, a spring that never fails, and a bit of wood to
round it off. Juvenal also gives a rather idyllic description of country life, with its
informality and freedom from fashion - Even the magistrates need no better badge of
status than a plain white tunic. 
Cultural life in Rome: 
Although the city might be expected to be far more culturally active than the country,
the Roman Satirists